"Kill her? No. I don't do women or kids. She's sleeping with a rival of Matteo's, so I'm just keeping an eye on him through her. That's all, Tesoro." The amusement never left his eyes, but he seemed genuine in his explanation.
"I don't want you stalking another woman." I winced as I spoke the words. Knowing that he'd stalked me, that his obsession with me had started in such a similar way to what he was doing with her, it felt like a betrayal of our relationship. Like it made it meaningless in the long run. Wasn’t I just another mark to watch, just another woman on the other side of the camera, at one point?
It was illogical.
It was insane.
But it was true.
He shrugged, moving his greasy hands to wrap around me as he lifted me into his arms and brought me to the desk at the edge of the garage. "She hasn't given me anything useful yet. I'll put one of the other guys on her and go back to following Tiernan Murphy."
"Really?" I asked, swatting his grease covered hands away when he tried to inch the nightgown up my thighs. I'd need a shower by the time he was done with me if he kept leaving black fingerprints all over me.
"I like you jealous," he murmured, leaning down to tease my mouth with his lips. "What will you give me if I do this for you, Sunshine?"
I narrowed my eyes on him, noticing the way his eyes lit up with humor. "I suppose I can think of something," I said, feeling more playful in the face of his joy. Ryker was such a serious man, such a beast that when he turned his good humor on me in the way that he did for only the kids and I, I couldn't help but melt.
It was a real problem when I wanted to stay angry with him.
"Show me," he whispered, those stained fingers working the fabric up my leg again.
So I did.
Forty
Ryker
Lino and his bodyguard, Georgio, led as we all climbed out of our cars and made our way toward the front doors of Murphy's. With us in suits, it must have looked like something out of a hardcore mob movie. Matteo and I went in the doors side by side after them, with Enzo and Simon taking up the rear.
As we made our way through the empty restaurant, we found Murphy already seated at his favored table in the rear. His second-in-command sat next to him, and several other allies stood behind him looking grim and terrified. They were too young, too inexperienced to present a genuine challenge to any of us. It only made sense, given that he wanted people who would be loyal to him before Liam O'Connell when it came time for him to overthrow his king. Unfortunately for Murphy, the experienced generations supported Liam wholeheartedly. He'd done well by his people, allowing them to prosper in their small territory because of his ability to form an alliance with Matteo.
Matteo and Lino each pulled out a chair on the other side of the table, taking a seat the moment Tiernan looked up from the papers in front of him. He beamed in greeting, as if he was welcoming old friends home instead of a group of rival murderers. "Gentlemen," he said, his voice too loud in the space.
"Murphy," Matteo said in greeting as Tiernan's eyes slid to the rest of us in inspection.
When they landed on me, he paused and an excited grin transformed his face. "Is this your Executioner?" Tiernan asked, leaning forward with a glint in his eye as he looked me over. "I've heard a great many tales about him."
"They're lies," I grunted, keeping my face as cold and impassive as ever as I stared back at the slime-ball who would sell my wife and children if he thought he could get away with it and make a profit off them.
"How can you be so sure? I haven't even told you what I’ve heard," he laughed, casting his eyes at the men who stood behind him to support their fearless imbecile of a boss.
"Because no one who has felt my knife is stupid enough to talk about it after I'm done." I spoke the truth. The men who I tortured and released were grateful that they walked away with their lives when all was said and done.
There was a tense moment of silence, and then Murphy barked a harsh laugh and jabbed a finger in my direction. "I like this guy. I don't suppose I can buy him from you?" The teasing lilt to his voice did nothing to appease the monster that rose to the surface. He struck far too close to home, too close to the truth of my life that even Matteo didn't know details of.
I was sure he'd been curious enough to dig at some point, but the specifics were limited. Even if finding my family was easy enough to do, given the prominence of the name before they died.
"Ryker is a member of my family," Matteo growled, the deep note of the threat in his menacing voice catching me by surprise. It wasn't often that he was so vehement in his defense of someone, aside from Ivory or Luna anyway, but the way that Lino's eyes glinted as he glared at Tiernan from next to me confirmed just how strongly I'd been accepted into their circle.
I'd known it, but hadn't been able to let myself feel it. Not before Calla and the kids opened me up to the kinds of things I'd never thought I could feel, the parts of me I'd thought had been killed long before.
"Loyalty." Tiernan shrugged. "We all demand it, but it is such an inconvenience when it stands in our way, is it not?" he asked. Matteo didn't answer, and I glanced to the side to meet Enzo's stare as he kept his gaze active on the rest of the room. His military training showed in every line of his body, from the way he kept his arms clasped behind his back to the way his feet remained shoulder-width apart.
If I was the brute executioner, Enzo was the shooter who would take out every enemy in the room before they could even touch their guns. Such was his reputation, and I knew from the way Murphy eyed the man warily that he'd heard it as well.
"Can we get down to business? I have places to be," Lino said, leaning forward and rapping his knuckles on the table twice.
"Yes, how is your wife? I trust she is proving to be worth the loss of your father? Such a tragedy, his untimely death," Murphy's second-in-command, Sean said from his side.